Greece

We flew to the Greek Isle of Santorini late last Wednesday night. We decided to take the long journey to the Cyclade Islands of Greece after many positive recommendations from friends and family. Santorini seemed especially interesting to me because it is a gigantic volcanic caldera. The main capital city, Fira (Thira) sits on the side of the Caldera and the white buildings look like powdered sugar on the top of the caldera cliffs. Waking up the next morning, we found a beautiful ocean view, a gorgeous pink bougainvillea above our tent, and hardly any people! Tourist high season was officially over. We walked into town and got breakfast, consisting of fresh fruit and amazing Greek yogurt! Next, we rented an ATV for four days we had on the island in order to cruise around the different beaches and sunset spots on Santorini at our leisure. We rented our Blue 80 cc ATV and I named it Cookie Monster because of the color and the never-ending grumble it made (just like the cookie monster on Sesame Street). We packed up our beach bag and headed to Perissa/Perivolos Beach at the Southern edge of the island. We arrived to gorgeous blue water, pretty rock outcroppings in the distance, and an endless line up of people laying under umbrellas and lounging on the black sand. We rode past most of the busier places and found and area of the beach we could have our own table, umbrella, and chairs for free with the purchase of a giant beer for 3 euros. SOLD! We spent the rest of the day lounging around the beach, going swimming in the salty, perfect temperature Aegean Sea, and just enjoying paradise. Later in the afternoon, we headed back to the campground and went on a jog by the cable car and on the pathway that leads to the village of Oia (ee-ah) in order to watch the sunset. It was uphill and there were lots of people, but running along the Caldera was breathtaking and the sunset was incredible! We had dinner that night at a place near the edge of town with the fastest waiters I have ever seen. We literally got ushered into the place before we even knew what was going on and the host immediately reached up above his head, pulled down the nearest bougainvillea flowers and said” these flowers are only in Santorini – this is why they are so beautiful”, and handed them to me. I refrained from telling him that the same flowers are in front of almost every residence in Los Angeles because he thought he was so charming and JJ was laughing his head off. We had a nice Greek dinner and enjoyed the running waiters. I ordered the “small fry” off the seafood portion of the menu and was actually very surprised when I received a plate of small fried sardines. Yep, they are a little bigger than anchovies. At first I was surprised, but then I thought – well I ordered this anyways so may as well give it a go. So I can check that one off the list of foods I have tried. We walked around the touristy part of town the rest of the evening and eventually found an amazing Gelato place. I got the flavor called “Italian Cookie” and it was out of the world! We walked back to the campground after dinner and literally passed out with smiles on our faces. So far Greece was everything I hoped it was going to be, except better!

The next day, we decided to get on a schedule for the rest of our time on Santorini. The whole island experience actually reminded me a lot of the week every summer I would get to spend with my grandparents in Florida. We were on a schedule of meals, beach activities, nap times, etc. JJ and I began our day with a home-made greek yogurt parfait that we concocted, then we went on another run on a different part of the Caldera edge. We got back, put on our beach wear and then headed off on “Cookie” to a different beach. The beach we visited on the second day was the very untouristy, Vlyxada (Vlihada) Beach. We arrived on our ATV after stopping at an amazing market where we each got a pair of goggles, a paddle ball set, and a bag of olives for only 4 Euros! We found a great spot with umbrella and chairs right on the beach. This beach had even prettier rock formations from the day before, and less people trying to sell us massages and DVDs than the day before. We had a great day of swimming, playing paddle ball, eating figs, napping, and just enjoying each other. On the way back to Fira, we rode on a gorgeous road of grape vines and pretty hills. Then, Cookie suddenly died. Although, it started right back up. I asked JJ is we should pretend that it didn’t happen, and he thought that was a good idea. The only problem was, it kept happening until about 8 miles from Fira, it would not start up again. We really had nothing to worry about though, there was still an hour left of light and the island is small, everyone has cell phones, and there are no stop lights. We started pushing Cookie up a hill to the nearest gas station. Almost immediately some very nice French people stopped and tried to help us, then a Greek guy about our age, named Costa came out of his house in front of where we stopped and spent a half hour trying to help us. He did not have a phone and we were not getting any luck, so I walked to the market up the road and made a call to the rental place. The rental man could not understand me, so some nice Greek people talked to him on the phone for me, and in 5 minutes he came to pick me up and took me back to JJ. He was able to quickly determine the spark plug needed to be replaced, from Costa’s assessment and we were good to go in about 5 minutes. We were thankful and relieved! At that point, it was getting dark and we were tired, so we went to the store and got all the ingredients to make a delicious Greek salad. We also bought a 6pack of beer for our new friend, Costa and delivered it to him as a thank you for helping us out. He could not believe we came back and at first, he thought Cookie had broken down again. We got back to the campground and made an incredibly large portion of Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, fresh feta, olives, green bell pepper, and tzatziki sauce, tortillas (we could not find pita bread), and said the Shabbat blessings.

The next day, we rode out towards the village of Oia on the North end of Santorini and went on a run after breakfast. Afterwards, we rode out towards the beach, Kamari. JJ and I agree that this was the prettiest beach we visited on Santorini. The water sparkled crystal blue and there were cute little boats bobbing in front of a huge rock out cropping in the distance. The water was the perfect temperature and excellent for swimming around. We made another great day at the beach eating lunch, napping, swimming, and playing paddle ball. We got back in the afternoon and then went to go watch the sunset over the edge of the Caldera. We decided to try the most popular pita/wrap place for dinner and filled ourselves to the brink of exhaustion.

Our last day in Santorini, we packed up the tent and went to the store to buy a different kind of Greek yogurt made from sheep’s milk! We took the bus back to Kamari Beach and spent another perfect day on the beach in almost the exact same spot as the day before. JJ and I took turns taking long swims along the beach and napping before our intensive last games of paddle ball on the island. For dinner, we walked along the Caldera Path to a traditional Greek restaurant on the cliffs called Sparos (the name for one of the ancient parts of Santorini that was separated from the main land when the volcano erupted). JJ had mousaka and I had swordfish. Having wine and watching the sunset was romantic and a great memory I will always have. We cleaned up and said goodbye to Santorini, boarded a ferry boat to Piraus (the city port of Athens) and slept on a fortress of chairs until we arrived in there this morning at the crack of dawn!

We got to our hotel in Athens and then headed straight to Acropolis, only stopping along the way to get Spanokopita and more Greek Yogurt. We walked up the south wall of Acropolis and along the ancient roads, finally summiting the top of the area and arriving at the Parthenon! It was so massive and incredible. The columns were so tall and wide. Each Greek ruin and the history behind all of these places amazed me. JJ and I sat and talked for a long time at the Theatre of Dionysius and I daydreamed about what it would have been like to see a Greek Drama in that spot. We walked on to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, where one of the original massive columns from over three thousand years ago had toppled on its side and you could really see how massive they are! We walked through the National Gardens and through more of the ruins in the Acropolis area, finally arriving at Ancient Agora. We strolled around the ruins, got great views of Acropolis in the late afternoon sun and walked through a museum of ancient relics. My favorite ancient relics where the child’s commode (apparently potty training was also popular in ancient times), the beads and jewelry, the clay pots used for voting, and the gigantic vessels. Last, we stumbled upon the temple of Hephaistus, which turned out to be my favorite of all the Greek ruins. It was almost 5000 years old and in really great condition. The sunlight and the clouds hitting the temple was just so picturesque. We came back to our hotel and had dinner in the neighborhood. There were Greek kids from the neighborhood playing all around the outdoor area by the restaurant, which gave it a really nice ambiance. Our delicious Greek food was a perfect ending to our time here.

Tomorrow we head to Tel Aviv and will be in Israel for about 2 weeks. Love to you all and we hope you had a nice Labor Day!